The Case Against Vitaminwater

Last week, a federal judge ruled against Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss and allowed a lawsuit brought against the company's Vitaminwater line of products to move forward. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is building a class-action suit against the sugar-drink peddlers for deceptive claims about the benefits of Vitaminwater, and Judge John Gleeson stated that the product does not comply with FDA standards largely because it emphasizes words like healthy in descriptions of the beverage's nutritional value. In particular, Gleeson noted, it's called Vitaminwater, but the name draws attention from a more prominent, non-vitamin ingredient: sugar. CSPI reports that packing a supposedly healthy drink with vitamins violates the "FDA’s so-called 'Jelly Bean' rule [which] prohibits companies from making health claims on junk foods that only meet various nutrient thresholds via fortification."